Previously, many types of twist ties have been used in endeavoring to provide an effective means for closing or tying articles such as bags, fastening plants to stakes, securing bundled electric cable and other restraining tasks. These ties have included strings, wires, adhesive tape, and ribbon sandwiched onto a metallic wire. The most common type of tie presently in use today is a pair of ribbons having a wire bonded in between with the ribbon fabricated of either plastic, paper or both. Attempts to eliminate the wire have resulted in unitary extrusions having a bulb-shaped central portion even to the extent that a core of rubber, or the like, is simultaneously extruded in the center.
Other characterizations of tie material include foil strips or a number of strands of wire in parallel alignment, further attempts have been made to make the tie completely of thermoplastic material that acts like wire by quenching or adding fillers to the formulation to add stiffness and malleability.